Pico 4g cyano infection

[Nano101]

So I’ve had cyano in the past, but never in my pico. Currently treating 50% water changes and chemiclean. Should I do a blackout? No fish, just coral. I have already cleaned both my pumps to maximize water flow. I did a near tear down last weekend, cleaning all the cyano out of the back fudge last weekend, but here I am a week later with the cyano coming back. I plan on doing 50% waterchanges every 3 days while treating with chemiclean. Should I also do the blackout?

 

[GoVols]

So I’ve had cyano in the past, but never in my pico. Currently treating 50% water changes and chemiclean. Should I do a blackout? No fish, just coral. I have already cleaned both my pumps to maximize water flow. I did a near tear down last weekend, cleaning all the cyano out of the back fudge last weekend, but here I am a week later with the cyano coming back. I plan on doing 50% waterchanges every 3 days while treating with chemiclean. Should I also do the blackout?

When using Chemclean your supposed to preform a 20% water change every 48 hours and re-dose the Chemiclean after every water change. Take the skimmers cup off but just let the skimmer go wacko, producing micro bubbles.

Have not dealt with cyano in over a year and a half, but I did not change the light cycle.

Seems like the power is more effective than the liquid Chemiclean.

 

[GoVols]

Also, There's is another strain that dies off when you Hydrogen Peroxide dose.

 

[GoVols]

See if this thread helps you out

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/positive-identification-of-cyanobacteria.253287/

 

[Nano101]

I’m on week 2 of water changes every 2-4 days treating with chemiclean. Still not much progress. I’ve had cyano in lather tanks before, and usually a week and it’s gone with chemiclean. Ugh

 

[brandon429]

Don't use any meds in a nano to make it cyano free


If you clean the sandbed the cyano will stop

Not saying meds are bad, am saying that there's a certain detail of a nano 4 g that no other tank has, and you can use this detail so that the nano never has one hour of any invasion possible in reefing, a neat way to see nanos. People with large tanks cannot claim that, and it's rarely attained. But nanos...a trick makes them invader free from day one to day four thousand I have documented using nano tanks.


Using meds like fluconazole or erythromycin does work in nano reefing, but it robs the keeper of the critical ability to be perpetually uninvaded across all genera, without having to know/locate its dose match and then having to hope it works when dosed. Meds teach an external locus of dependency to make a tank run, but knowing how to make your nano immune to every invasion in reefing is internal locus and works all the time, every invader.

We have eradicated cyano invasions, across all tanks, in the pico reefs forum at nano reef.com by simply making use of this one little detail

Post full tank shot, it's rare for bare bottom nanos to have enduring cyano invasions. Given verified zero tds sourcewater and typical nano led lights, the sandbed is the cause and in that we should address the direct cause. Since the water isn't the cause I'm hesitant to dose or act on the water.

Cyano is the easiest invasion in reefing to control given known topoff water and lighting, it's a one hour invasion if you will it that way. If it's been a multi week challenge, it was willed that way, neat aspect of cyano challenge nanos as the complete tank cleaning approach has a one hundred percent documented rate of stopping the invasion.


By lunch time today, you have the option of being invader free. If you want it there so you can chart which dosers kill it, that's ok too.

 

[Nano101]

So replace my sand bed?

 

[Nano101]

And yes, 0 TDS water and Kessil light that has been working great. Should replacing sand in a pico be a regular thing? Should I go bare bottom?

 

[brandon429]

This is what my opinion is based on

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445


Interestingly, I’ll likely never go bare bottom. I like the way sand looks.

There are plenty of successful tanks that don’t clean their beds, anyone can choose their mode as they’re all mixed pros and cons...any enduring invasion to me signals a possible intercept point

And we keep finding the culprit not in the actual sand grains...but between them

The detritus. I like sand, but I loathe detritus.

a negative side of my method is it’s work heavy, breaks most reefing laws of handling things delicately and it’s brutish, which is why nano reefs are ideal for it since they’re easy to access. Sandbed rinsing or replacing is literally everyone’s last approach, nobody starts with a hands on method, they arrive there after no other options to keep their tanks uninvaded.

That entire thread and all the money risked (seemingly) in the thread in other people’s giant reefs is all based on the work of a one gallon pico reef who gets rinsed ten times more often than any other tank in the thread to demo the reliability of simply being fed up with a dirty sandbed.

We clean them as needed. Each persons variables are unique, mine are about every six months I’ll rip clean it and rinse the bed out in tap.


I replace the bed nowadays about every two to three years, cuz it’s cheap and one small bag. Rinsing would be just fine vs a change or removal of the bed, the point is the detritus not the actual sand grains.

I’m on kessil agreed.

If your nano runs the tenets of that thread, it cannot be invaded with any form of unanchored invader. Diatoms, dinos, spirulina, cyano, cannot set up shop where they’re blasted out, period. No invasion can beat that method.

What’s left as invasion risks now is anchored ones...green hair algae and bryopsis and turf algae. Got an equal method for those two heh. When I mention an uninvaded nano I mean literally uninvaded 100% of its life, I know about six total reefers on the planet willing to reef that way. The rest take their chances.

 

[brandon429]

You have a way to make large tank keepers see that volume isn’t ideal or more stable or easier to reef in, it’s just better for fish.

They’ll wrestle with a cyano invasion for thirty months with only partial actions taken...but your reef can be parted, cleaned and reassembled on any lunch break, reset back to normal even if a mistake of some type (like not quarantining which I don’t) sets off a new invasion

Nano reefers who don’t quarantine for invasions aren’t at a risk if they’re central locus of control reefers. Large tank reefers better be quarantining even if they are responsible for their invasions...even they don’t want to be rip cleaning a 300 gallon system. Volume matters massively in tank invasion strategy.

The smaller the system, the simpler it is to keep running and to keep invasion free. Knowing how to clean them in order means you’ll never recycle a tank. Not one single loss, even if you rip cleaned it everyday for five years, they’re not harmful they’re refreshing events.


Some cyano subside on their own, invaders tend to have phases. That doesn’t mean rip cleaning is good or bad, or that waiting for an invasion to go away naturally is the only way...the sand rinse thread simply shows how you can stop a mini cycle with pure control if you are tired of seeing an invader in it’s phase.

 

[Nano101]

Replaced all the sand. It smelled awful. I do have 4 nasurus snails I thought would keep the sand stirred up and not have this problem. Guess the solution didn’t work

 

[brandon429]

Though pics of that journey would be so valuable I’d dance a jig, if you are stating you just flipped a live nano reef 360 degrees and landed back with a clean sandbed that is cloudless all in one pass and lost nothing and the entire system is cyano free and cyano food free, I’d link this to the sand rinse thread off testimony alone

 

[Nano101]

I’ll see what the tank looks like when I get home tonight

 

[Nano101]

Definitely moving in the right direction. It was the sand

 

[brandon429]

My goodness thank you tons, linked


I like how you described the smell


We talked in our sand rinse thread about the human nose being better than api at locating trace ammonia in solution

 

[brandon429]

please let us know how growback compares to chemi clean with a dirty diaper vs no chemi clean and a clean diaper, we are wanting to know how much just your sandbed waste was contributing to issues


I’m not surprised if a tad bit comes back, we’ve only done one single action though it’s likely to hold a long time. Any light leftovers can be easily typically guided out with a quick siphon so that the offensive mass is no longer allowed to accumulate

Some cyano is normal on reefs, it doesn’t signal a problem until it’s dominant. This is why small portions are acceptable and huge smelly issues aren’t. Something about blue vs white heavy lighting also matters...we aren’t trying for cyano perfection only marked control and I truly think this kind of clean is the ticket. It is for my super old nano

 

[brandon429]

How’s it looking now

Can you get us an updated tank shot with all white lights to check progress

 

[Nano101]

It looks great. I need to take some updated pics. I hurt my back so my focus hasn’t been tanks. Everything looks back to back to normal but the LPS hasn’t come back out yet. All other corals are back out and water clarity is great

 

[brandon429]

aw great that's weird on the lps part for sure? cant wait to see. I don't think in all my rip cleanings any loss has occurred except for animals accidentally rinsed down the drain, I try to catch and retain my micro brittle stars for example.

Any coral in good setting before a rip cleaning event is benefitted by being put back in a super clean tank with no waste in storage...it allows for spot feeding of the corals quite well for a long time without the usual window cleaning tradeoff. you can literally feel in its vibe how hungry a rip cleaned reef is, they'll accept good target feeding now without reflecting algae or invasion, and this might elicity polyp extension in the ones behaving atypically.

 

[Nano101]

Update

Frogspawn are completely closed, a little cyano coming back. I need to prune my chaeto, that would help. Also due for a water change